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Vinasse and bagasse are residues from the production of mezcal, an alcoholic beverage. Treating these wastes is very important to avoid the contamination of water bodies and soils by their discharge into the environment. One of the processes to treat this type of waste is anaerobic digestion. In this study, mesophilic anaerobic digestions were carried out with different organic loads and a retention time of 30 days, where bagasse was thermally pretreated to decrease cellulose crystallization and reduce lignin content, which is highly resistant to chemical, biological, and enzymatic degradation, constituting a barrier for cellulose utilization during the process such as enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequent fermentation. The process carried out with a lower bagasse proportion of 5% resulted in a more significant reduction of COD, SSV, and a methane percentage of 70%, 49%, and 63%, respectively, while maintaining a pH between 6 and 7.5 and an alkalinity of 2,000 mg/L. These results indicate that the process was not inhibited when the content of bagasse was low, reaching the methanogenesis stage in the anaerobic digestion.

The Vinasse is a mezcal distillation byproduct that contains large amounts of contaminants, which can affect the environment. An alternative for reducing the concentration of organic and inorganic material that Vinasse contains is implementing bioprocesses with semi-continuous operation. This research evaluated Stigeoclonium nanum in a photobioreactor flat panel with a capacity of 15 L of operation with a dilution rate of 0.033 d-1(1L/ every two days) of Vinasse, quantifying growth of microalga and reduction of the high concentration of contaminants with daily determinations of photosynthetic pigments, the nitrogen of nitrates, total phosphorus, CDO, total carbohydrates and ammoniacal nitrogen. The results obtained were 143.06mg/L of total production of chlorophylls throughout the experiment, consumption percentages of nitrogen of nitrates, total phosphorus, CDO, and total carbohydrates of 59 %, 87 %, 6 %, and 23 %, respectively. The ammoniacal nitrogen does not present significant consumption, however its concentration is below 10

Las vinazas son residuos altamente contaminantes que se generan en los procesos de elaboración del mezcal. Estos efluentes se caracterizan por tener una alta carga orgánica, un color marrón, pH ácido y un alto contenido de compuestos recalcitrantes, como son los compuestos fenólicos. Para investigar la reducción de estos compuestos presentes en las vinazas mezcaleras se implementó un tren de tratamiento donde se realizó, primeramente, la caracterización del efluente, seguido de un pretratamiento fisicoquímico (coagulación/floculación) y posteriormente se aplicó un proceso de oxidación avanzada (fotólisis UV/H2O2). Los resultados de la caracterización de la vinaza mezcalera mostraron altos valores de la demanda química de oxígeno (DQO) de 45,730 mg O2/L, pH de 3.4 y contenido de fenoles totales de 3,000 mg AG/L. Para el pretratamiento se utilizó el policloruro de aluminio (PAC) como coagulante y poliacrilamida (PAM) como floculante, se lograron remociones de color del 67 %, turbidez del 95 %, fenoles totales del 40 % y DQO de 56 %, con las condiciones de pH 5 y dosificaciones de PAC de 10 mg/L y PAM de 3 mg/L. Para las pruebas de fotólisis UV/H2O2 se utilizó la vinaza cruda y coagulada, obteniendo remociones de fenol cercanas al 60 % en un tiempo de retención de 35 min y una concentración de H2O2 de 0.99 g/L. https://doi.org/10.54167/tch.v18i3.1582